Manley elop Vs focusrite 430 or Avalon 737

olsian

New member
Hi. I want to buy a compresor for recording vocal. What suggest to me to buy Manley Elop. Focusrite ISA 430 or Avalon 737. Thanks.
 
I had an Avalon 737...the compressor was ok but the preamp was uninspiring...every mic sounded dead. I have a Great River pre and a Summit TLA-100 now that I love.
 
Hi. I want to buy a compresor for recording vocal. What suggest to me to buy Manley Elop. Focusrite ISA 430 or Avalon 737. Thanks.

The ELOP is an entirely different beast. It has a breathtaking sound, I've loved it on almost every vocal I tried it on. If the compression is what you're after, neither of the other two can touch the Elop, especially on vocals. In my opinion Manley has found a PERFECT balance between character and transparency with this unit. It doesn't have a ton of grit. This is not a Distressor or an 1176 that can just grime up and get raunchy. So the thing will still sound natural, but it digs just hard enough to give color.

As a compressor the ELOP blows the Avalon and ISA out of the fucking water. No one buys the 737 because they love the compressor, they buy them because they need a full blown channel strip. Preamp wise, I wouldn't take either of them over the API if I wanted something tight, transparent, and accurate. Nor would I choose either of them over the BAE if I needed something with a ton of saturation, thickness and color.

If you need a preamp, the best thing to do here may be to buy a standalone pre and then chain the ELOP behind it. In the preamp department, I would go for the Daking one over the Focusrite ISA if you can't afford the API.

I'm a huge fan of Manley gear. I love everything they make. The Massive Passive, Slammer, TNT, Voxbox, Vari-Mu and Gold mic are all stunning tools.
 
To me there's no contest if you're really in this for a compressor. Here's an excellent video demo of the ELOP. And I like this example because it's being demoed in a way that highlights its true strengths. And its being demoed by an engineer that knows what he's doing, not some knob twiddling goon on a sales floor.



So as you can hear, it sounds way different than an LA-2A. What you want to listen for is the specific way it brings the vocal forward. Its arch rival on the hardware market seems to be the UA LA2A. Some people criticize the ELOP for being too in-your-face and a little too 'modern' in that regard. With some engineers prefer UA LA2A because they feel it 'glues' the vocal more and sitting it a little further back in the mix. The Manley Vari-Mu on the other hand is a EMI style compressor circuit would achieve a surreal level of transparency and warmth but does not have the punch that the ELOP has.
 
I had an Avalon 737...the compressor was ok but the preamp was uninspiring...every mic sounded dead. I have a Great River pre and a Summit TLA-100 now that I love.

Tom, that's the point. This preamp is supposed to sound dead. And in doing sounding 'dead', what they also achieved is an immaculately clear, quiet, noiseless, and neutral preamp with ample headroom. My biggest gripe has more to do with other features on the strip.

And I don't think comparing the Avalon 737 pre to the Great River ME1NV is really an apples to apples challenge. In that matchup the ME1NV probably has an advantage over the Avalon, but if you go NP2NV against an Avalon AD2022 you're on equal footing (solid state vs solid state - similar price point) then that 2022 is going to be the winner in a lot of non-music recording scenarios. Crazy as it sounds, I think that Avalon 737 has actually done some damage to the Avalon brand as far as music recording folk are concerned. Avalon seems to be held in much higher regards by non-music recording professionals than it does by music recording engineers.
 
why would you not list the basic 1176 and copys and the LA2A and copy versions?

the Behringer/ KlarkT 1176 gets a lot of good reviews and its only like $500. excuse...me ...499.99 ..
the 430 is a channel strip with a comp ..the GAP LA3a and 2A look fun.

i agree with the preamp not hearing it...after I tried a bunch of preamps the compressor was what gave it the sound I was looking for. preamps were interesting a bit but when you start cranking up a LA2A its like wow, or some compressors were like cool! mud blob sound!....or the almost invisible compressor that you can see on the daw waveform but not with my ears?.

i go around in circles on this, so if you get a good solid preamp, you can do all the compressing ITB for a lot less, some interfaces allow realtime with good plugs like the Apollo etc..UA units...but it seems the hardware is more clear in my setup, which isnt saying much.

off the top of my head Ive had a
RNC almost invisible
Symetrix invisible

ART TPS, LA610mk2 (LA2A plugin) tubish compression..I think silky smooth, Beatles RubberSoul/Revolver

MikeE El9 solid/discrete based on 1176, very nice, maybe a bit more dirt, great. Nirvana, Offspring, more modern dist-bite...

Lindell 1176 copy x15 or something...I didnt crank it so it was kind of invisible, but my first 1176 copy.

They can all do some clean low ratio invisible stuff but seems some can get interesting when its smashed up.

Adele raw tracks were done on a 6176 on the big album and they doctored it in DAW but the raw tracks were good enough, which I thought was interesting. Rode mic > 6176.....platinum largest seller billboard 200 all time stuff.

its like the mic + channel strip...is like the electric guitar + amp....they have to be one. but even then you have guitar pickups, rooms, fingers and players...the source...yadayadayada

isnt the most common tried and true the Neve1073 style preamp + 1176 a good start?
or a LA(2A)610 for the more polished stuff..??
then match the voice with mic and all that.

ELOP, TUBE TECH , SUMMIT, UA6176, LA610, Emperical Labs thats all pro-gear imo...$$$$$$
what tiny bit Ive tasted of it is worth the money for a serious player and really is $1500 or $1900 that much?
you get the pre....you get the compressor....you get the box and phantom, and often a DI too!

divide by 3 and its $500 each.

hard decision though to choose one.
like LA2A family or 1176 type?
like Fender Strat or Gibson Les Paul hard to choose just one.
 
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